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Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) A Welsh poet who wrote exclusively in English He wrote poetry, short stories, and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself Famous for public readings of his works (had a sonorous voice)

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Dylan Thomas As a child, he was neurotic and sickly and shied away from school, preferred reading on his own. He read all of D. H. Lawrence’s poetry and was impressed by Lawrence's descriptions of a vivid natural world. Fascinated by language, he excelled in English and reading, but neglected other subjects and dropped out of school at sixteen. His first book, Eighteen Poems, was published when he was twenty. Thomas did not have thematic concerns with social and intellectual issues. His writing, with its intense lyricism and highly charged emotion, has much in common with the Romantic tradition.

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Dylan Thomas Thomas visited America in January 1950, for the first time, when he was thirty-five. His reading tours of the United States, helped popularize the poetry reading as new medium for the art. Thomas was the archetypal Romantic poet of the popular American imagination: he was flamboyantly theatrical, a heavy drinker, engaged in roaring disputes in public, and read his work aloud with tremendous depth of feeling. He became a legendary figure, both for his work and the boisterousness of his life. Tragically, he died at the age of 39 in New York City in 1953.

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Do not go gentle into that good night Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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Do not go gentle into that good night a villanelle (possibly composed in 1945 but published in 1952) the speaker: the poet himself 19 lines grouped into five tercets and a concluding quatrain rhyme scheme: aba -- with the same end-rhyme for every first and last line of each tercet and the final two lines of the quatrain Two of the lines are repeated: –The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and the fourth stanzas, and as the second-to-last line in the concluding quatrain. –The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and the fifth stanzas, and as the last line in the concluding quatrain.

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Literary devices The rhyme scheme alternates between “night” and “day.” “Good night” is a metaphor and a pun. “Dying of the light” is a metaphor. “Old age should burn and rave” in line 2 is a combination of metonymy and personification. “Close of day” is a metaphor. “Burn” in that same line is used metaphorically, as is “dark” in line 4. In line 5 “their words had forked no lightning” is metaphorical. Line 8 “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay” employs personification and metaphor. Line 10 “Wild men who sang the sun in flight” is exaggeration and metaphor. Line 11 “they grieved it on its way” is also exaggeration and metaphor. Line 13 “Grave” is a pun; “blinding sight” is an oxymoron. Line 14 “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors” is a simile. Line 17 “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray” is a paradox.

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Analysis the speaker in his poem tries to convince his father to fight against imminent death; the speaker admits that death is unavoidable, but encourages all men to fight death; the speaker's listing of various reactions of men in their final hours is a self-addressed rationalization of his father's scolding catharsis before passing on; the poet himself fears death and having little separation between life and death; the poem discusses various ways to approach death in old age and advocates affirming life up until the last breath, rather than learning to accept death quietly.